The present invention relates to item tracking and management, and more specifically to a system and method of providing greater reliability, security, and convenience using an automated item tracking system for the management of items, for example airline passenger baggage, through a publically-accessible electronic communications network such as the Internet.
The need to keep track ofxe2x80x94to trackxe2x80x94a variety of different items in a secure, organized, and logical manner has been steadily increasing in a variety of situations. Once a convenience or optional customer service, item tracking and management will become increasingly valuable in a number of different contexts. One such context is the tracking of airline passenger baggage. Note that although the present invention is described in this context, however, the system and method of the present invention will be advantageously applicable in a number of other scenarios as well.
Millions of passengers board commercial airliners each year, many of them accompanied by one or more pieces of luggage. Some of these items the passenger chooses to xe2x80x9ccarry-onxe2x80x9d, that is, to bring with them into the airliner passenger cabin. Other luggage is xe2x80x9ccheckedxe2x80x9d, or given to an airline representative to be stowed in a cargo-only compartment of the plane on which the passenger is flying. For security reasons, the contents of a carry-on bag are usually examined before the passenger boards the airplane. This examination may be performed by X-ray or by direct visual examination. While the number of permissible carry-on bags is often limited to prevent over-congestion, there is generally no other management of carry-on luggage, and its presence is rarely tracked or recorded anywhere.
Checked luggage is often examined as well, although generally not with the same degree of scrutiny as carry-on luggage due to the cost and delay of doing so, but knowing that it will not ordinarily be accessible from the passenger cabin. When handed over by a passenger, it is normally weighed, labeled, and exchanged for a claim check that may later be required to demonstrate ownership of the bag. The weight of the bag, or at least the collective weight of the bags belonging to all of the passengers, is recorded because it will be needed for load and balance calculations before the airplane can take off This information is not generally retained after landing, however, because there is currently perceived no further need to do so. The same is true for the number of bags checked by each individual passenger, although important for the flight and the ensuing baggage-claim process, once all the luggage has been claimed or its presence otherwise accounted for, a record of this information is no longer maintained. And in many instances this information is only maintained at all simply by providing each passenger with a baggage claim check, rather than keeping a list in a central location.
For security reasons, as opposed to simply those necessary for baggage handling, each piece of luggage is sometimes matched with a passenger on the plane before it is actually loaded. This procedure is executed based on the belief that a passenger traveling on an airplane is far less inclined, in view of their own safety, to check bags containing hazardous materials that may (or may even be intended to) damage or destroy the plane in flight. While recent events have revealed that this belief is not universally true, the bag matching procedure is still considered prudent and is often being required by regulatory bodies. Again, however, this xe2x80x98informationxe2x80x99 is often not retained beyond the flight in question absent some extraordinary reason for doing so.
As an added security measure, passengers checking baggage are often queried as to whether anyone else has given them something to carry onto the flight, or whether the opportunity for surreptitiously doing so might have arisen. There is typically no permanent record of thisxe2x80x94or really any meaningful record except in the negative sense. That is, passenger responses arousing suspicion may lead to a further investigation or even denial of boarding of which there may be a permanent record, and any absence of such a record probably indicates that the passenger was allowed to proceed, and to check any luggage in their possession. On relatively infrequent occasions, the luggage of a person otherwise not arousing suspicion may be thoroughly examined. The frequency of such examinations rises when misbehavior is anticipated, or immediately following some sort of violent attack, but the more intensive searches are not as frequent when no such circumstances exist.
The benefits to more comprehensive tracking and management are several. First and foremost, collecting and retaining more information about each bag will provide a way for the airlines and the federal government to monitor for trips to locations that in and of themselves, or in combination with other trips give rise to suspicion concerning the carrying passenger""s activities. Second, it provides an efficient way to track down luggage that has been misdirected and have it promptly returned to its rightful owner. Third, passengers more confident in the baggage-checking system may be more predisposed to check luggage rather than attempt to carry everything with them on board, relieving to some extent the problem of cabin congestion. Overall, air travel will become a more safe and worry-free experience for travelers, presumably with an attendant boost in ridership. The present invention provides a system and method for item management that in its various embodiments will provide some or all of these advantages.
The present invention provides a way to track and manage items and information related to them. In one aspect, the invention is a item tracking and management system including a central registration server and associated database. Marking tags, which may be for example RFIDs, bar coded tags, pictures, or machine-readable symbols, are issued for and affixed to each item. At the time of issue, information about the item itself and about its owner is collected and stored in the registration database. Management of the items begins when they are presented at a check-in station in communication with the registration server and continues indefinitely. The check-in station includes means for reading the marker tags to extract information from them, and to collect information about the person checking them. This information is forwarded to the central registration server for analysis and for storage on the registration database. This information may be stored on a database local to the check-in station as well. A check-out station may be provided to monitor items leaving active management and return to their owners. The check-out station may read the marker tags on each retrieved item and attempt to ensure that the item is being claimed by the proper party. A lost-item return station in communication with the registration server may be provided as well for aiding in the recovery and return of lost items. The lost-item return may also be used to arrange for items that are to be delivered to third parties regardless of whether they are lost. The registration server may be accessible to the general public through a firewall protected connection, so that an item""s owner may be permitted to access selected information stored on the registration database. Third parties may be given lied access as well.
In another aspect, the present invention is a method of tracking and managing items including the steps of issuing marker tags to be affixed to each item, accepting the marked items at a check-in station where the tags are read, and forwarding the information collected to a central registration database. The method may also include the steps of retrieving selected information from the database and using it to compile a security profile, which can then be compared to predefined models. If a particular model is matched, for example a profile indicating travel to a nation known for terrorist activity, then the appropriate security agency is notified and further action may be taken. The information may also be used to delivery items to third parties or to retrieve lost items. The information, or selected portions of it, may also be forwarded to other systems for their use. The information may also be used to compile trend or analysis reports to third parties.